May 16, 2025 News
OpenAI Plans Massive 5-Gigawatt Data Center in Abu Dhabi with G42
OpenAI is reportedly developing a 5-gigawatt data center campus in Abu Dhabi spanning 10 square miles, as part of its global Stargate project with G42, an Abu Dhabi-based tech conglomerate. The facility would be four times larger than OpenAI's 1.2-gigawatt Texas campus and has raised concerns among U.S. officials about potential technology transfer risks, despite G42's claims of divesting from Chinese interests.
Skynet Chance (+0.04%): This massive infrastructure investment significantly increases available AI compute, potentially enabling more powerful and less controllable AI systems that could outpace safety measures. The geopolitical dimension and involvement of foreign governments adds complexity to governance and oversight mechanisms.
Skynet Date (-1 days): The unprecedented scale of compute infrastructure (5 gigawatts, equivalent to five nuclear reactors) accelerates the timeline for developing more powerful AI systems by removing computational constraints. This represents a substantial acceleration in the race toward more capable AI with potentially fewer safety guardrails.
AGI Progress (+0.04%): This extraordinary scaling of compute resources directly addresses one of the primary bottlenecks to AGI development - raw computational power. The 5-gigawatt facility represents infrastructure specifically designed to enable training of increasingly capable and general AI systems at unprecedented scale.
AGI Date (-1 days): The development of data centers at this scale (four times larger than already significant existing projects) dramatically accelerates the timeline for AGI by enabling much larger training runs and more complex models. This infrastructure buildout removes one of the key practical limitations to AGI development speed.
OpenAI Launches Codex: Advanced AI Coding Agent Powered by o3 Reasoning Model
OpenAI has introduced Codex, a new AI coding agent powered by the codex-1 model (an optimized version of o3) that can write features, fix bugs, answer questions about codebases, and run tests in a sandboxed environment. Initially available to ChatGPT Pro, Enterprise, and Team subscribers with plans to expand access, Codex joins the competitive market of AI coding tools like Claude Code and Gemini Code Assist.
Skynet Chance (+0.08%): Codex represents a significant advancement in agentic AI that can autonomously perform complex software engineering tasks, potentially enabling AI systems to self-improve their code. While it operates in a sandboxed environment with safety limitations, this capability to understand, write, and debug code autonomously marks a step toward AI systems with greater independence.
Skynet Date (-1 days): The deployment of increasingly capable AI coding agents accelerates the development timeline for more sophisticated AI systems, as these tools can enhance the productivity of AI researchers and engineers. OpenAI's statement about Codex eventually handling tasks that would take human engineers "hours or even days" suggests rapid capability advancement.
AGI Progress (+0.05%): Codex demonstrates significant progress in AI reasoning capabilities applied to complex software engineering tasks, including understanding codebases, executing multi-step reasoning, and autonomously debugging until success. The ability to parse human instructions and convert them into functional code represents advancement in bridging natural language understanding with structured problem-solving.
AGI Date (-1 days): The release of Codex accelerates the AGI timeline by enabling more efficient development of AI systems through AI assistance, creating a feedback loop where AI helps build better AI. The commercial release of this capability, alongside similar tools from competitors, indicates the technology is maturing faster than previously anticipated.
xAI Reports Unauthorized Modification Caused Grok to Fixate on White Genocide Topic
xAI acknowledged that an "unauthorized modification" to Grok's system prompt caused the chatbot to repeatedly reference "white genocide in South Africa" in response to unrelated queries on X. This marks the second public acknowledgment of unauthorized changes to Grok, following a February incident where the system was found censoring negative mentions of Elon Musk and Donald Trump.
Skynet Chance (+0.09%): This incident demonstrates significant internal control vulnerabilities at xAI, where employees can make unauthorized modifications that dramatically alter AI behavior without proper oversight, suggesting systemic issues in AI governance that increase potential for loss of control scenarios.
Skynet Date (-1 days): The repeated incidents of unauthorized modifications at xAI, combined with their poor safety track record and missed safety framework deadline, indicate accelerated deployment of potentially unsafe AI systems without adequate safeguards, potentially bringing forward timeline concerns.
AGI Progress (0%): The incident reveals nothing about actual AGI capability advancements, as it pertains to security vulnerabilities and management issues rather than fundamental AI capability improvements or limitations.
AGI Date (+0 days): This news focuses on governance and safety failures rather than technological capabilities that would influence AGI development timelines, with no meaningful impact on the pace toward achieving AGI.